On March 11, 2011, the great east Japan earthquake occurred which triggered a powerful
tsunami. The earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear accident in one of the world’s
biggest nuclear power stations—the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Radioactive
contamination has spread though air, rain, dust, water, wildlife, garbage disposal,
transportation, soil, plants, animals, infrastructure, supply and food chains in immense
areas. Thus direct and indirect radiation effects from the disaster have been felt by a good
part of the Japanese population.
There are numerous publications on the impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on
agricultural lands, farm crops and livestock, agricultural and food products, farmers, local
communities, consumers behavior, agri-food trade, etc. (Johnson, 2011; Ujiie, 2011;
Yasunaria et al., 2011; Watanabe, 2011; Fujita et al., 2012; MAFF, 2012; Murayama, 2012;
Oka, 2012; Koyama, 2013; and Nakanishi and Tanoi, 2013). Nevertheless, due to the scale
of contamination and affected agents, impact’s multiplicities and evolution, spillovers,
longtime horizon and the lack of ‘full’ information and models of analysis, the overall
impacts of Fukushima disaster on Japanese agrarian and food sector are far from being
completely evaluated (Koyama, 2012).
The aim of this paper is to assess the diverse impacts of Fukushima nuclear disaster
on the Japanese agriculture and food chains. First, we present the framework of analysis.
Next, we assess the immediate and short-term radiation effects, and effects on nearby
population, safety regulation and inspection system, markets and consumer’s behavior,agrarian and food products, health and economic impacts on farming and agribusinesses.
Finally, we assess the overall short and long-term impacts on agriculture, food industries,
consumers in Fukushima region, neighboring regions and other parts of Japan.
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